other peoples art

(Un)forgotten flora

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small flowering lemon tree

Francis Annagu — project creator, documentary photographer and creative writer (based in Nigeria) invited participants to take part in creating a new work for online exhibition (on Co-iki’s website) under the “Creativity from HOME” experimental residency curated by Co-iki. I’m included with my thoughts on lemons and oaks:http://www.carolinemawer.com/lemons-oaks-and-the-wood-wide-web/http://www.carolinemawer.com/lemon-trees-citrus-limon-and-limu-shirin/http://www.carolinemawer.com/quercus-brantii-the-west-asian-oak/I wrote of how Living in a big …

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Life, Interrupted: 14 Sept-14 Oct

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grid of thumbnails of submissions from artist in group exhibition

I got a very generous share of the time at the opening event of this digital group exhibition at the Socially Engaged Art Salon, Brighton. Theres more from all the other artists here: https://www.seasbrighton.org/life-interrupted-gallery And more on my own submission here: https://www.seasbrighton.org/post/life-interrupted-caroline-mawer

And suddenly I disappear

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And Suddenly I Disappear. Some of the cast. Image: Guardian

When I saw And Suddenly I Disappear,  it felt that, suddenly, there was actually a chance that I might personally appear. Not definitely. I still don’t know where. But at least now there’s a chance. For maybe a chance appearance. Thankyou thankyou THANKYOU for that to Kaite O Reilly and the whole splendid ensemble! Kaite explores …

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Shakespeare Incarnate

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Tom Shakespeare by Lucy Jones. https://farmerofthoughts.co.uk/

Incarnate is a triptych: a conversation between Tom Shakespeare and some of the great works from the Renaissance to the modern era. It focuses on the theme of human embodiment. Incarnate is Shakespeare’s largest art work. It was inspired by the Gothic Nightmares exhibition at Tate Britain. Here it is in (a poor copy – but …

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Memory Palace

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In the Mind of the Beholder. Gilbert and George. Seen in White Cube Memory Palace 2018

I was in Bermondsey and so grabbed the chance to have a look at the Memory Palace in the White Cube. The accompanying booklet tells me that “memory defines us”. And that art is “a powerful medium for stories missing from history’s official record”. Three of the items felt especially relevant to my current work …

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Bosch, strawberries, and high fashion

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Detail from Hieronymus Bosch Garden of Earthly Delights: one of many strawberry symbolising the pleasure of forbidden fruit

I always learn something from the regular Sotheby’s Selects emails. This month the focus is on Hieronymus Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights c.1490-1505. Here, I’m adding a little to Sotheby’s excellent summary. This reminds us that Bosch’ triptych starts closed to display the third day of the Biblical formation of the earth . The left wing …

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Dorothea Lange and the Politics of Seeing

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Barbican exhibitions of Dorothea Lange and Vanessa Winship 2018

I was excited to go to the Barbican exhibitions of Dorothea Lange and Vanessa Winship‘s photography. But what I found out is the Politics of Seeing can be just as rotten as any other Politics. Lange has been described as “principled .., a heroine of the lens“. After her most famous photo, Migrant Mother, was …

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Looking round corners with Black mirrors

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This gazing ball is one of those black mirrors that tempt you into looking off to the side, at the unseen and unseeable. Find out more in my Birkbeck blog on walking around a black hole.

What tremendously thoughtful fun I had meandering round Birkbeck with a black mirror, gazing into a fairy ball!  Sheila Ghelani had designed our route by placing one of the mirrors she’d created onto a map: we were going to meander around the black hole thus created. Decked out with palm-size pebbles of mirrors in black …

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Gazing at a new planet: the Salvator Mundi

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Salvator Mundi,c.1500 Leonardo da Vinci, oil on walnut 45.4 × 65.6 cm. Image from Wiki

What can we learn from how we look at Leonardo’s Salvator Mundi? I’m really interested in how we look at things. I already mentioned the Mona Lisa as an example of something that maybe we look at in the same way every time. I compared this with the ‘art’ on 15th and 16th century mosques …

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